China’s Vice-premier He Lifeng will speak virtually at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)-hosted bankers’ summit taking place in the city this week, the highest-ranking official to headline the second confab of global financial heavyweights.

He will speak in a pre-recorded video address during a session on Tuesday at the Global Financial Leader’s Investment Summit, according to the programme provided by Hong Kong’s de facto central bank. Representatives of the Chinese central bank, mainland China’s financial watchdog and its securities regulator will also attend the session, entitled “China – the Way Forward”, according to the programme.
The summit at the Four Seasons Hotel, the second organised by the HKMA, will gather more than 300 top global financiers, as well as Hong Kong officials including Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po and the HKMA’s CEO Eddie Yue Wai-man.
About 90 of the 300 global bankers and financiers attending this year’s investment summit are either chairmen or CEOs, up from 40 at last year’s event (pictured). Photo: Sam Tsang
People’s Bank of China deputy governor Zhang Qingsong, National Financial Regulatory Administration vice-minister Xiao Yuanqi, and China Securities Regulatory Commission vice-chairman Wang Jianjun will attend the conference.

They will speak on a panel discussion moderated by Yue. A similar panel last year was conducted online as China had not yet relaxed its Covid-19 travel restrictions, which mostly stayed in place until early this year.

“It is useful for them to be in Hong Kong in person … when there are so many concerns about the Chinese economy,” Yue said in an interview with the Post last month. “People really want to hear about it from the horse’s mouth.”

China is facing multiple financial challenges, with foreign investors pulling capital from its onshore stock exchanges amid slumping equity prices, while the yuan has fallen to a 16-year low against the dollar.

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The same statement about Hong Kong was mentioned in 2012 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis but omitted during the last financial conference in 2017.

This will mark the first time so many heavyweight mainland Chinese regulators have come to Hong Kong to meet global financiers. Xiao attended the summit last year, but only via pre-recorded speeches.

The regulators will have the chance to meet with 300 top bosses from the likes of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup and HSBC. Among them, about 90 are top-level executives – either chairman or CEO – up from 40 last year.

The event kicked off with a lavish banquet at Hong Kong’s Palace Museum on Monday evening.

The CEO of Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Asia Pacific, Masakazu Osawa, is looking forward to meeting other top global bankers and financiers during the two-day summit.

“It will be a great opportunity for me to exchange ideas with the other participants so that we can better prepare our midterm business plan for Asia-Pacific starting next year,” Osawa said on Monday. MUFG, whose parent is the biggest Japanese financial group, has operations in 19 markets.

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The golden opportunity for big bankers and asset managers to hear directly from mainland China’s top regulators in person comes as investment sentiment towards Chinese stocks is at the lowest level in recent years.

Some US$75 billion of capital exited the country in September, the largest net outflow since 2016, Goldman Sachs said in a report earlier this month, using its measure of cross-border currency flow. That came after a US$42 billion flight in August as the capital and current account suffered deficits.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index has slumped 9 per cent this year, and the CSI 300 Index, which tracks the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen, has fallen by 7.7 per cent.
The onshore exchange rate of the yuan against the US dollar dropped to 7.2733 on Monday, from 6.9050 at the start of this year, representing a depreciation of about 5.3 per cent.